nomenclaturism

"nomenclaturism"  is the notion that words have a one-to-one relationship to the things they purport to name. 

(From today's WSJ review of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos.)

"Nakusa" or "Nakushi"

In the news today  more than 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life. "Nakusa" or "Nakushi," mean "unwanted" in Hindi.

Ofrendas

Ofrendas are elaborately decorated shrines to the dead erected in homes, shops and offices during the Day of the Dead festival in early November Mexico.

Edra Blixseth

Edra Blixseth is the former co-owner of the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana, who went from being a paper billionaire to filing for Chapter 7 bankrupcy - liquidation - in three years.

Alibi

'alibi' literally means 'elsewhere' I learned today.

Operation Tomodachi

So was called the relief mission by the US military following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan this year.  "tomodachi = "friend".

Chingaletta

I'm borrowing this word from another blog of mine which is getting  occasional hits on it from search engines:


"I often use "Chingaletta", which a Mexican forman I used to work for would use to call anything he couldn't name at the time. It wasn't until about 6 years ago when I found out the true meaning of "chingaletta" It means "F#$%ing thing". Usage: "Hand me that chingaletta over there" "

Wabi-sabi

From a Wall Street Journal's article today about artist Tom Sewell's home he built in Maui:

"The result: a rustic Japanese-influenced style created to embrace the concept of wabi-sabi, or finding beauty in imperfection.

Goodbye Cassette Player

Also in this morning's Wall Street Journal, this item:

The Oxford English Dictionary says it is removing the term "cassette player" from its Concise dictionary.

Countertenor

Words.  In all  my readings of newspapers magazines, web pages, flyers, I often encounter new words English and as often as not foreign which I find interesting, stimulating, worth remembering.   In English they are usually rare, obscure terms, in foreign languages, they describe objects or events unknown in the English speaking world.  I write these terms down on the backs of envelopes, on margins of newspapers and scraps of paper, to keep for future categorization and use, and then I lose them.  So it goes.

Yesterday I finally got an idea to start keeping track of these discoveries by writing them down in a blog.  I had no candidate words and no name for the blog when I opened the Wall Street Journal this morning and read an interview with a German opera singer named Andreas Schull, who sings countertenor.

Countertenor is  "singing music originally written for castrated men more than two centuries ago".


Says Mr Scholl:

 "The complete human would be someone who integrates both male and female elements, and a countertenor does that. That's what I like, that the countertenor can be a figure of identification for men and women—because challenges to humanity are not exclusively male or female."